Climate change makes "ordinary living" a lot more risky

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This is mostly "old" writing that was in the draft folder, from 2022.

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Remember those Parkay Margarine ads? "You can't fool Mother Nature."

1.  Waterfront development.  The New York Times asks why are we still building on waterfronts, given sea level rise ("Why Is New York Still Building on the Waterfront?").  I have to admit I push waterfront based revitalization initiatives and don't always think about this.

The answer: people want to live on the water and it makes money.

Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images. An aerial image shows the only access to the Matlacha neighborhood destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sept. 30, 2022.

2.  Hurricane and Superstorm prone areas.  Florida.  The Times reports that many people can't afford to rebuild in the face of Hurricane Ian.  

And Florida actually improved its building codes, making them stronger in dealing with the effects of hurricanes, albeit that was when the state was run by Democrats ("South Florida, Tulsa, and Santa Fe as examples of regulatory success and Texas as an example of regulatory failure").  The problem is that as hurricanes become more powerful, those building codes need to be extended across the state.

-- To Save America's Coasts, Don't Always Rebuild Them"
-- "Rethinking Building in Storm-Prone Areas"
-- "Three Ways to Build Back Smarter After Hurricane Ian"
-- "Hurricane Ian's Financial Toll Threatens Florida's Real Estate Market"

3.  Casualty insurance.  Plus, most for profit insurers are leaving Florida, leaving the property insurance market to a state owned insurer of last resort, which can never be capitalized to the rate necessary to cover likely risks ("Will 2022 bring the collapse of the Florida homeowners insurance market?," Bankrate).

... I used to get angry when a person involved in selling insurance argued against creating historic districts in DC because the houses wouldn't be able to get insurance.  I would say, "what about Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill, etc.?"

But it would definitely be a lot higher if there were regular risks from weather. 

New York City.  The Times reports, "‘If We Wait, People Will Die’: New Yorkers Still Fend for Themselves in Storms," on how residents in Greater New York are taking steps to protect themselves in the face of severe rains, flooding, Superstorms, Hurricanes, etc. Especially as the effects are not limited to those abutting rivers and waterfronts.  From the article:

Whatever lessons had been learned after Sandy, which brutalized the area with storm surges, coastal flooding and widespread power outages, they didn’t prepare people for the storm risk that Hurricane Ida exposed: flash floods intensified by climate change, and aging sewage systems that cannot absorb storm water fast enough. In the aftermath of Ida, policymakers are still grappling with blind spots in their post-Sandy recovery plans, and homeowners and renters are wondering what, if anything, they can do to protect themselves from rapidly deteriorating conditions. ...

“Our structures are a lot more vulnerable than we thought,” said Eric Klinenberg, a sociology professor and the director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. “The challenge is more extensive than we recognized, it’s going to cost more than we budgeted, and it’s more urgent than we expected.”

In hindsight, Sandy stands as a book end — the beginning of an era of stronger and deadlier storms, capped a year ago by Ida, a Category 4 hurricane that managed to catch people unaware after making landfall days earlier in Louisiana.

 (We had to add a second sump pump to our DC house, after the terrible rain event a couple years ago, where as much as 5 inches of rain fell in less than an hour in Northwest DC and Montgomery County.  Our area is a little worse because there's an undergrounded creek which leads to a high water table.)

Also see "The Disaster to Come: New York’s Next Superstorm," NYT.

4.  Emergency management failures in Lee County, Florida led to more than 100 deaths ("Facing a Dire Storm Forecast in Florida, Officials Delayed Evacuation" and "Vulnerable and Trapped: A Look at Those Lost in Hurricane Ian," New York Times). "Thanks DeSantis."

Aerial view of the flooding of the Guadalupe River near Kerrville, Texas, on Saturday July 5th, 2025. Photo via U.S. Coast Guard/UPI

5.  Speaking of "if we wait, we will die," that's what happened in Texas earlier this year, with river flooding ("Why Texas Hill Country, where a devastating flood killed more than 135 people, is one of the deadliest places in the US for flash flooding," The Conversation, "24 dead in Texas floods and more than 20 children missing from a girls summer camp," AP).  

Despite past experience with bad flooding, local authorities punted on funding emergency warning systems, partly because they didn't want to spend the money, even with grants as part of the funding mix.  Emergency siren systems are more effective in the middle of the night when people are mostly asleep, and when the flooding happened ("Texas state leaders call for more sirens, flood gauges and mitigation efforts," Texas Tribune).

6.  Wildfire.  Oregonians aren't happy about having to cover the cost of wildfire risk ("Oregon tried to inform residents about wildfire risk. The backlash was explosive," Grist Magazine). From the article:

Last summer, after a series of devastating wildfires, the Oregon state legislature passed a sweeping bipartisan bill to protect against future blazes. The law unlocked money to develop new building codes in vulnerable areas and help residents who wanted to fireproof their homes. It reached the governor’s desk with support from Portland-area Democrats and rural Republicans alike.

Before state officials could implement the new regulations, though, they needed to figure out which areas faced the greatest fire danger. For this reason, the bill required the state forestry department to create a comprehensive wildfire risk map within a year, assigning a risk score to every household in the state. The forestry department finished the map right on time in June. It then mailed a letter to every homeowner who was in a high-risk zone, alerting them that new regulations would be coming soon.

The first version of the Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer map, published earlier this year. The state retracted the map after public outcry. Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer

This seemingly anodyne mapping measure produced a frenzy of backlash from every corner of the state. Hundreds of residents showed up at public meetings to berate state officials for designating their homes high risk, and hundreds more wrote in to contest their risk status. Many argued that the state was going to make their insurance more expensive and their property less valuable.

The same Republican lawmakers who had supported the wildfire bill then pounced on the map as an example of state overreach. In early August, the state caved and withdrew the map, vowing to spend another year gathering feedback before releasing a final version. In a tight race for state governor that will be decided next week, the Democratic candidate has distanced herself from the old version of the risk assessment, saying the revision “must address concerns from property owners.”

Like covid, fire pretty much ignores politics.

In Washington State, given federal cutbacks to the US Forest Service and Federal Emergency Management Administration, more wildfires are expected ("WA’s wildfire future: More volatile forests amid slashed budgets," Seattle Times). 

In 2019, Texas paid for billboards in California making fun of electricity shortages in the summer.

7.  Electricity.  With extreme cold and extreme heat, electricity demands are now high throughout the year, rather than peaking and dropping, with demand approaching the edge of capacity.

Supply failures are increasingly likely because of increased demand by Internet data centers ("AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring," Bloomberg, "Big Tech’s A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone," New York Times, blog entry, "Data centers").

Hundreds of people died in Texas in 2021 because of utility failures in winter ("Talk and lying versus doing: The electricity crisis in Texas is produced by state regulatory failure").  And it turned out that when electricity fails, so do water systems, furthering the negative impacts of the failures.

Drought and power generation.  Note that in the West, where a majority of federal dams generating electricity are located, drought is making it tougher for the dams to be able to generate electricity in the face of water levels dropping below water entranceways for the generating systems ("Lake Powell forecasts show hydropower generation is at risk next year as water levels drop," Colorado Sun).

8.  Extreme heat and deaths.  Communities in hot regions are experiencing a lot more heat-related deaths in the summer, as a result of extreme temperatures having disproportionate effects on those of lesser means. 

More cities are appointing "chief heat officers" to plan for and address the effects ("Planning for heat/climate change | Public health" and "Climate change is already here in many US communities | "Heat Officers" versus Climate Change Officers").

Columbia South Carolina has a pilot program measuring heat islands ("Scientists look for help to exactly measure Columbia’s heat," AP).

9.  Flooding and impact on stormwater and water treatment infrastructure.  Rain events are a lot stronger than they were when most communities built their stormwater capture infrastructure.  Now it is common for the piping to be overwhelmed during storms.  

In 2022, rain-related flooding overwhelmed the water treatment infrastructure in Jackson, Mississippi ("EPA determines water in Jackson, Mississippi, is safe to drink two months after treatment plant failure," CNN), calling attention to how racism leads to underfunding of urban needs, but also the reality that there are billions of dollars in unfunded needs for improvements to existing sewer, stormwater, and water treatment infrastructure.

A man rides his motorcycle through a flooded street in the Melrose Park neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Last Friday, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported on high-tide induced flooding there ("Heavy rain during high tide swamps Broward roads ahead of weekend cold front").

Residents on the west side of Salt Lake City were flooded out a couple weeks ago, after the strongest rain event in 120 years--rain also made entry into the foundation wall of our bedroom ("The Oct. 4 rainstorm is just one example of the severe weather in our future," Salt Lake Tribune, "Salt Lake City mayor issues emergency declaration in response to weekend flooding," KSL-TV).

People clean up on Sunday, after Saturday’s historic rain caused significant flooding in a Rose Park neighborhood. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall declared a state of emergency over the flooding late Monday. Wesley Barton, KSL-TV

10. Systems of local government finance, created when the US was growing, are hard pressed to meet demands for new infrastructure needs induced by climate change ("The real lesson from Flint is about municipal finance," 2016).

Earth Day is today

 The first Earth Day was on April 20th, 1970 ("Earth Day, Part 2: April 22nd," 2024).  How are we doing?

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Not well, with the Trump Administration.

Illustration: transitioning from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.  Vox.

Coal power plant.  Wikipedia photo by Sam Nash.

1.  Repudiation of climate change science ("Earth Day 2025: How the Trump administration's policies will impact global decarbonization." ABC News).

2.  Promote a fossil fuel economy rather than a renewable energy paradigm.  During the first Trump Administration the Economist suggested this was a backwards rather than a forward looking approach ("America’s domination of oil and gas will not cow China").  This is a classic example of the Gerschenkron theory of economic backwardness being an advantage for later blooming economies as they can adopt the latest technology without worrying so much about sunk costs. ("New report details long-term challenges to US energy dominance," Midland Reporter-Telegram, "The road to energy dominance is not paved with coal," The Hill).  

Also see "Clean energy breakthroughs could save the world. How do we create more of them?," Vox.

From the second article:

Market forces have been phasing out coal for the last decade in favor of cheaper electricity sources. Coal’s decline has been steady, regardless of which party sits in the Oval Office. When President Trump took office in 2016, coal represented 30 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. By his first term’s end, and despite efforts to prop up the industry, that share had plummeted to 20 percent.

Adobe Images photo of a coal mining operation. 

A recent series of executive orders throw a federal kitchen sink at bolstering this energy resource, which markets deem uneconomic, while simultaneously declaring an energy emergency. But the White House cannot erase energy market realities by presidential fiat.

Executive orders cannot change the fundamental economics of coal-fired power plants, nor can they alter states’ authority over electric generation facilities, which Congress delineated in the Federal Power Act. The orders also will not bring new coal plants online within the next four years, because their time horizon from investment to build, interconnection, and operation is far longer.

3.  Trump Administration will disallow states from imposing regulations on American energy projects ("Trump’s New Way to Kill Regulations: Because I Say So," New York Times)

President Trump this week directed 10 federal agencies — including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — to implement a novel procedure to scrap a wide array of longstanding energy and environmental regulations.

He told agencies that oversee everything from gas pipelines to power plants to insert “sunset” provisions that would cause regulations to automatically expire by October 2026. If the agencies wanted to keep a rule, it could only be extended for a maximum of five years at a time.

Experts say the directive faces enormous legal hurdles. But it was one of three executive orders from Mr. Trump on Wednesday in which he declared that he was pursuing new shortcuts to weaken or eliminate regulations.

The article goes on to discuss how the regulatory process for creating rules works, and that Trump's order is counter to administrative law. 

4.  With an increase in the number of extreme weather events ("Extreme Weather and Climate Change," NASA), the Trump Administration is calling for an end of FEMA providing disaster planning grants to states ("Trump administration ends key grant program that helps communities prepare for disasters," AP).  From the article:

In a news release Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, calling the move part of efforts to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.”

“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” the agency said in a statement.

In addition to ending the program going forward, FEMA said it was also cancelling all applications to the program from 2020 to 2023 and that money that was awarded as part of grants but not already distributed would be immediately returned to the federal government.

Not to mention the gutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that includes the National Weather Service ("The costs of Trump’s NOAA science purge," Politico, "Trump administration has set Noaa on ‘non-science trajectory’, workers warn," Guardian). 

5.  End Environmental Justice Programs.  These programs address harms caused by the location of polluting firms in low income communities ("EPA to fire or reassign more than 450 staffers working on environmental justice, DEI" Washington Post).

6.  Defund National Parks.  Not only does this make visiting national parks more difficult.  Scientific research programs are being gutted ("Former rangers worry what Trump’s cuts will mean for Utah’s national parks," KUER/NPR).

7.  Increased cutting of trees in US Forest Service lands ("USDA Opens 59% of Federal Forest for Logging to Manage Fire Risk," Bloomberg).  Plus defunding the agency  and cutting science projects.  Given the increase in the geographic spread and virulence of wildfire, the cuts extend to personnel who respond to wildfires ("‘Crazy’: Forest Service cuts ignite fear, fury over wildfire risks," Politico).  

The Ocean County wildfire covered 8,500 acres and led to about 3,000 residents being evacuated, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. Photo: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Wildfires in states are an increasing problem ("N.J. wildfire swells to 11,500 acres, could become biggest in two decades," Philadelphia Inquirer).

8.  Considering denying nonprofit status to environmental advocacy groups ("Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups," Bloomberg) as it's already cutting grants to such groups without authorization from Congress ("EPA’s Decision to Scrap $20bn in Climate Grants Based on ‘Inaccurate, Politicized’ Claims, Says Grantee," Earth.org).

There have been weekly demonstrations at Tesla showrooms across the country, including damage to buildings and cars.

9.  Bonus: Elon Musk's destruction of government as a shock troop of Trump is harming the electric car producer, Tesla ("As Tesla profits plunge 71%, Elon Musk says he'll spend less time on DOGE," NPR).  Note even better than electric cars is not driving and...

10.  The Trump Administration is deemphasizing transit funding and multi-mobility transportation policies("States push to shift road funds to transit and bike projects as Trump threatens cuts," AP).  

The Administration is threatening New York State transportation funding because the State won't accede to demands that New York City end congestion pricing ("Trump official threatens New York governor over halt of congestion pricing," Guardian).  

The Administration also cut a planning grant to Texas for high speed passenger railroad service, calling it savings for taxpayers (press release).

This photo is actually from Canada.  X photo.

Most transit agencies across the country are facing massive cuts in service, because of federal disinterest in providing funds.

11.  Bonus: More generally, Republicans are pretty much against public investment and the concept of public goods ("Boebert wants to pull the brakes on federal funding for proposed Front Range passenger rail project," Denver ABC7 ).  During the Biden Administration plenty of Republicans took credit for projects in their districts that they voted against.

City water outages happen too often

I never did write about Jackson, Mississippi's water crisis a few years, when the water treatment plant failed leaving the city's 150,000 residents high and dry (Jackson Water Crisis, NRDC).  The city is predominately black and the predominately white State Legislature stepped in in what could be considered racist ways ("The Jackson Water Crisis, the Complexity of Environmental Racism," NonProfit Quarterly). From the first citation:

The drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi, has suffered from serious safety and reliability problems for decades. Residents have endured discolored water, low pressure, oily water, and water with floating particles. Jackson’s water previously had elevated lead levels, and its treatment plants have struggled to properly and consistently filter and disinfect the water. Despite recent attention from federal officials, including a lawsuit filed against the city of Jackson in late 2022, the water system’s problems have not been fully resolved. 

Aging infrastructure and climate change are partial causes, partly an issue of environmental justice ("Jackson water crisis: A legacy of environmental racism?," BBC).

There's no question that many water systems across the country have state of good repair needs far beyond their ability to raise funds to do the improvements.

Richmond, Virginia recently had problems with a flooded water treatment center, leading to supply problems and boil advisories ("Could city workers have stopped flooding at Richmond water treatment plant sooner? State health officials say yes," WRIC TV).

In shades of Flint Michigan, which ended up leaching lead into water after switching water suppliers without updating their chemical treatment formula, Richmond's water department hadn't replaced the part that led to the failure, for many years ("For 8 years, city put off replacement of part that caused water outage," "Read the documents: Problems with Richmond’s waterworks well-known before system collapse," Richmond Times-Dispatch).  From the first article:

Mayor Danny Avula on Thursday afternoon said that, during Monday’s power outage, the switchgear failed to automatically transfer the plant to its primary backup power source. Instead, Avula said, the plant diverted to a secondary, battery-powered source that lasted for only 45 minutes.

Officials also wanted to “replace … the existing controls in the … switchgear,” the records show.

That battery source died before power was restored to the facility, leaving valves stuck open and causing catastrophic flooding. Avula on Thursday said that the switchgear had functioned properly through many previous blackouts, but at the time he could not say, precisely, when the component had last been replaced. The solicitation issued by the city in October 2016, obtained by The Times-Dispatch, shows that officials sought “modification of the existing switchgear” to ensure it could "automatically operate” the facility.

And Prince George's and Montgomery Counties recently had water boil advisories because of an excess of broken water mains and other problems ("Water-use request lifted for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties," Washington Post).

In 2021, the Texas electricity blackouts led to water system failures too, because most didn't have backup power generators ("Texans now face a water crisis after enduring days without power," Texas Tribune).

Conclusions.  (1) a failure to plan; (2) lack of money to replace seriously aged infrastructure; (3) lack of a sense of urgency. (4) climate change.

Los Angeles wildfires

Speechless.  It's covered elsewhere far better than I could ever hope to do.  Suzanne, from SoCal, knows people whose houses have been leveled, life's work lost.

2.  The disinformation about why the wildfires started is similar to the disinformation the Murdoch media pushes in Australia to discredit climate change theories.

3.  I didn't understand high winds til I came to Utah.  Sometimes we experience ongoing winds of 70mph or more.  In fire conditions this spreads embers beyond firebreaks, and also significantly speeds spread.

4.  Yes, areas prone to fire, and/or difficult to respond to, should not be built upon.

Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment

 Gaps in park master planning frameworks

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Utilizing Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality and Activation"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History" 
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework" 

But while I have written a bunch about parks and transportational access, I didn't think to include that as another topic in the series.  The challenge is to ensure that as many parks as possible are accessible by transit.  This, and other forms of accessibility, should be covered in a parks master plan.

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Ten | Park transportational access" (2025)

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-- The State of the Great Outdoors: America’s Parks, Public Lands, and Recreation Resources, Resources for the Future (2009) 
-- Addressing 21st Century Conservation Challenges to Benefit Our People, Economy, and Environment, Conservation Conversations

Climate change and national parks.  Parks with extraordinary  environmental features face big losses in the face of sustained heat.

Many of the signature parks operated by the National Park Service will sustain serious damage from climate change and managers will have to make hard choices about what elements of parks can survive and what will have to be abandoned ("Resist, accept, direct framework").

-- Green Parks Plan: Advancing the National Park Service Mission Through Sustainable Operations, third edition, NPS
-- Planning for a Changing Climate, NPS
-- Climate change in National Parks brochure
-- Park visitation and climate change, NPS
-- Parks and Climate Change, National Parks Conservation Association
- "Some U.S. national parks are trying to go carbon-free. What does that mean for visitors?," National Geographic
-- "What to Save? Climate Change Forces Brutal Choices at National Parks," New York Times
-- Plan for Climate-Smart Cities, Trust for Public Land
-- "Saving our national parks could save us too," Salt Lake Magazine
-- "How the climate crisis is forever changing our national parks," CNN

State Parks and Climate Change

-- Climate change and California State Parks
-- State of Change: Climate Change in New Mexico's State Park Areas

-- Preparing Washington State Parks for Climate Change A Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for Washington State Parks
-- "A pivotal period: Century-old state park systems face modern issues," Washington Post
-- Climate Change webpage, Minnesota DNR
-- "How climate change affects Minnesota and our parks and trails," Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota

-- "State parks could be 10 times more expensive to operate by 2050," Popular Science

-- "Pennsylvania’s state parks have more visitors and less money — and fresh hopes to change that," Philadelphia Inquirer

Webinar: Climate Change and State Parks

Local/City/Urban Parks and Climate Change

-- How Cities Use Parks for Climate Change Management, American Planning Association
-- Parks as a climate solution, TPL
-- (Parks) adapting to climate change: Working with nature to transition our urban environment, Plante&Cité
-- Implementing Eco-Management: Concepts and practice for more nature in the city, Plante&Cité
-- "The carbon sequestration potential of urban public parks of densely populated cities to improve environmental sustainability," Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
-- "50 Grades of Shade," Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

According to the Trust for Public Land (The Power of Parks to Address Climate Change, webpage, report) parks are good at greening.

• Eighty-five percent of cities are adapting parks and recreation facilities to address climate change
• Eighty percent are enlisting parks to counter urban heat
• Seventy-six percent are improving surfaces to reduce flooding and runoff from rains
• Twenty percent are actively managing parks and woodlands to sequester carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. 
• Other cities are managing parks to reduce the risk of wildfire, restoring shorelines to absorb storm surges, and opting for renewable sources of energy. 
• Cooling green space is not equitably distributed, however. Trust for Public Land analyzed the 100 most populous cities and found that the neighborhoods where most residents identify as people of color had access to an average of 43 percent less park acreage than predominantly white neighborhoods.

If 85% of cities are addressing parks and climate change, then my thesis that this is a gap in parks master planning practice is wrong.  OTOH, it's a micro versus macro scale issue.  And the reality is that the day to day operations requirements and the increased demand from the public for both more parks and more activities and facilities makes dealing with long term issues, like climate change, difficult.  

From "Designing urban parks that ameliorate the effects of climate change," Landscape and Urban Planning:

• During heat waves now and in the future urban microclimates put human health at risk.
• Intercepting solar radiation is the most effective way to reduce the heat load on people.
• Reducing air temperature is the second most effective way to reduce heat loads
• Evidence-based climate-responsive design can make parks more thermally comfortable.

Elements of a Cultural Landscape Report, from the NPS brochure on Cultural Landscapes

Planning at the landscape scale for Sugar House Park: the cultural landscape.  A way to tie the various planning approaches together is to use the cultural landscape planning framework, which looks at sites in a variety of ways.

For the purposes of Sugar House Park we should focus on the elements of land, vegetation, buildings, and history.

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework"

Parley's Creek and its watershed.  In the 1800s, Salt Lake City got control of most of the water rights on nearby federal lands--the canyons--which are mostly controlled by the US Forest Service.  

Water rights are controlled by Salt Lake City Public Utilities, which defines watersheds in terms of the production of culinary water, not the flow to the Great Salt Lake.

Parley's Creek and a pond are part of the Park, and part of the Jordan River watershed, which flows into the Great Salt Lake.

To SLCPU, the "watershed" ends at the mouth of the canyon and its water treatment plant.  The Creek's contribution beyond the Canyon to "the general watershed" comes from water discharges into the Creek, but past the Canyon, much of the Creek derives from storm water.  And these days we don't get a lot of rain.

-- Stream Care Guide: A Handbook for Residents of Salt Lake County! 

-- Salt Lake City Riparian Corridor Study: Parley's Creek Management Plan

-- Jordan River planning documents

Within the park the Creek is mostly daylighted, with a small section not, because it was contaminated when the site was a prison.  The Creek Management Plan provides a number of recommendations for the Creek within the Park.  But not much has been addressed since the plan was released in 2010!

As we gear up to do a new round of master planning, one element will be the Creek and pond.  

The Park is implementing a wayfinding and interpretation signage system, so we have an opportunity to do some watershed interpretation.  

On our list of things to do, we are organizing a kind of symposium of the area river and creek stakeholders so that we start moving on Creek issues.  The state has the Jordan River Commission, and the advocacy group, the Seven Canyons Trust, works on creek daylighting issues throughout the County.

There are good models for better practice.  Nearby Fairmont Park, run by the city, has done a lot with their portion of the Creek.  Fairmont has springs, which feed a fishing pond.  Fitts Park in the City of South Salt Lake, which includes Mill Creek, has done nice stabilization work around their creek too.  

Flooding/Flood control.  In the 1980s, Salt Lake City experienced major flooding because higher than normal temperatures led to premature snow melt.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) High water levels in Salt Lake City's Sugar House Park on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

As a result, Sugar House Park was rebuilt in part as a flood control structure.  When snowmelt is high, Public Utilities will do water discharges so that the reservoirs don't overflow.  

We don't have issues at the scale of a coastal city like Boston (Climate Ready Action Plan), but sometimes parts of the park may close because of risk management planning and flood control.  Fortunately this is an infrequent occurrence.  Last year there was flooding at the park, resulting in road closure ("Flooding at Sugar House Park means the pond is working as planned," Salt Lake Tribune). 

Water conservation. The park is a lot of grass and trees and we water it.  I need to find out about the ability to use recycled water.  I don't think Salt Lake City is set up for it.  

Parks serve many people, therefore should remain a priority for water use, compared to other institutional users.  But we need to be efficient.  We are planning to add various monitoring sensors and upgrade the irrigation system ($1 million minimum) and other equipment to address this.  

We need to collect and present information on water conservation and irrigation in our plans, on the website, etc.

Turf and plants.  Grass uses a lot of water.  Two years ago, Salt Lake City Public Utilities introduced a turf blend that uses 30% less water ("SLC's drought tolerant turf is such a hit, other communities in Utah want some," Utah NPR).  

That's something to look at, but then we have a lot of grass we'd need to dig up.  One option could be to convert some sections of the park to meadow.

-- "Urban park visitor preferences for vegetation – An on-site qualitative research study," Plants, People, Planet

Trees/arboretum.  Trees: serve as shade devices, are an equity issue, and provide environmental benefits ("‘Turn Off the Sunshine’: Why Shade Is a Mark of Privilege in Los Angeles" and "How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering," New York Times)

Planting new trees is important but faces challenges because of heat and water (Landscaping for shade, US DOE, "How Much Can Forests Fight Climate Change? A Sensor in Space Has Answers.," New York Times, "What About the Trees? Trees as Nature-Based “Shade Sails”," American Journal of Public Health, Your tree planting companion, TEAGSAC Urban Forestry Department, Ireland, "Cities Are Good at Planting Trees. They’re Not So Good at Keeping Them," Walrus).

Tree planting as a city equity measure is an important priority of the Salt Lake Mayor.

Infographic about the climate change impact of tree planting 

as part of a bus rapid transit project in Cleveland.

Sasaki 

Over the next year we are looking to become accredited as an arboretum, which provides another opportunity for environmental interpretation, improve tree cover, do fundraising, etc.  

-- American Forests
-- TreeUtah
-- ArborDay, April 26
-- National Park City Foundation
-- International Day of Forests, March 21

-- Community Forests: A path to prosperity and connection, TPL
-- "Cities Nationwide Combat Climate Change With Urban Forests," Governing
-- "Since When Have Trees Existed Only for Rich Americans?,"  New York Times
--  "Befriending Trees to Lower a City's Temperature," New York Times
-- "Why trees in Los Angeles are political, cherished, underfunded and controversial," Los Angeles Daily News

A TreeUtah event in Fairmont Park, Salt Lake City

-- "Northeast Ohio cities work to reverse history and impacts of tree canopy loss," Ideastream/NPR
-- "Mature trees are key to liveable cities – housing intensification plans must ensure they survive," Guardian
-- "‘I’m glowing’: scientists are unlocking secrets of why forests make us happy," Guardian
-- "It takes more than trees to build a livable city," Vox
-- "How America Is Making Tree Equity a Climate Solution for Cities," TIME Magazine
-- "The surprising way that millions of new trees could transform America," National Geographic

Creating an arboretum within the park is an opportunity to develop some great guides, brochures, education programs, etc. for interpretation.

Unfortunately, as more organizations shift to digital presentation, there is no longer access to the often great materials produced in the past.  The quality of today's brochures pale by comparison.

Plus, most state and local sites don't do a very good job of putting their documents online to begin with

One of my ideas is to develop an online database of such historical documents.  The closest we have is the database of the National Park Service's online brochures for the parks, as well as other materials.  NPS archives don't have everything, but remain an incredible resource.

Fauna/biodiversity.  Participating in the Bridge Park initiative 10 years ago ("Revisiting the 11th Street Bridge Park project as an opportunity rather than a folly: a new revitalization agenda for East of the River, DC"), I was struck by how one of the design teams focused on providing food not just for people, but for flora and fauna in and along the Anacostia River.

SHP is pretty sculpted.  Lawns are well maintained without much in the way of leaf litter or other elements that support insects and other fauna  ("Species richness in urban parks and its drivers: A review of empirical evidence," "City parks vs. natural areas - is it possible to preserve a natural level of bee richness and abundance in a city park?," Urban Ecosystems). 

This is a problem for residential property too ("The ‘no mow’ movement could transform our lawns," Washington Post).  From the article:

Mowing grass too short can cut the tops off flowering plants, creating lawns that are inhospitable for pollinators seeking habitats in which to feed, rest and nest, experts say. Keeping your lawn neat and trim not only is resource-intensive but can also affect its overall health. 

 British Wildlife Photography awards. Hidden Britain Runner-up 
Flower crab spider and Honey bee, Lee Mill, Devon by Lucien Harris

... creating a pollinator lawn will take a bit more thought than just letting grass grow freely, experts say. “If you have a traditional lawn, letting the grass grow to a foot tall or whatever it would be at the end of May is no value whatsoever,” says Susan Carpenter, native plant garden curator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. Grass that long could be harmful to lawn health and become a mowing nightmare.

The park has some insects ("What urban nature really means for insect biodiversity," Horizon: The EU research and information magazine), birds ("Urban parks are a refuge for birds in park-poor areas," Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution), and maybe some small animals like raccoons.

To expand fauna diversity, perhaps we should install bat houses and beehives.  We do have a community garden, and are looking to create another.

Of the entire park, only a small section along the Creek is "more wild."  

Mows to Meadow Project in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park is converting some grass areas to meadows planted with native plants.

We may wish to stop mowing some parts of the park to increase opportunities for fauna ("Meadow Developing in Flagstaff Park to Restore Habitat," Cambridge, Massachusetts).

The south side of the park abuts the I-80 freeway so it's very noisy.  

Long term, we could deal with UDOT to increase plantings on the abutting embankment to support fauna (Roadside Best Management Practices that Benefit Pollinators, FHWA) and reduce noise (that section of freeway used to be part of the park).  

How much do we manage the park for people and for fauna is a question definitely not posed by the existing master plan.

Ducks and dogs as disease vectors.  Sadly, because of the pond, the park has a hell of a lot of ducks.

Which end up contributing e. coli to the Jordan River watershed, which in turn flows into the Great Salt Lake.  

Who knew e. coli could be a park management issue.  

Errant dog owners who don't clean up after their pets are big contributors too.

Plus people feed inappropriate food like bread to the ducks.  We have signs up, but it doesn't matter.

Carbon neutrality/greenhouse gas emissions, etc..  Ellinikon Park (designer website, Ellinikon Experience Park website), under construction in Athens, Greece has the goal of being carbon neutral--increase carbon sequestration, limit or avoid emissions, and reuse embodied carbon--but it will take 35 years to accomplish.  ("Carbon-First Design: The Ellinikon Metropolitan Park in Athens," ASLA).

Should that be a goal for Sugar House Park?  While grass clippings are left on the grass, we don't compost from trees and shrubs.  That's an issue.  Can we improve our energy use?  We are bystanders to the Salt Lake Valley's air quality problems ("Reaching for Air: The Salt Lake Valley’s pollution problem can be solved. Will Utah leaders act?" and "Reaching for Air: The price Utahns pay for poor air quality," Salt Lake Tribune) but by planting more trees, etc., we can help on that score.

Transportation demand management.  Despite all the media coverage about how environmentally-conscious Utah is, the fact is that the predominate land use and transportation planning paradigm is sprawl.  While there is a transit system that is decent for what it is, but most everyone drives.

Motor vehicles significantly contribute to the air quality problem.  A lot of patrons come to the park by car.  Can we reduce our park's contribution to the problem by working to improve biking and transit options for getting to the park?

Klyde Warren Park over Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Dallas (History).

Noise/Freeway decking/capping.  To deal with aesthetics, noise, and opportunity, I have a crazy idea to deck/cap the freeway section like Klyde Warren Park in Dallas or the Big Dig in Boston.  

Many cities are pursuing such projects ("Philly’s other big I-95 project to start: A cap with an 11.5-acre waterfront park, South St. pedestrian bridge," Philadelphia Inquirer, "Feds grant $450 million toward I-5 freeway caps in North Portland’s Albina district," Portland Oregonian," "Interstate 5 in Downtown Seattle: Put a Lid on It?," Seattle Met).

Because the section next to the park (it was part of the park before the freeway was built) is so big--40 acres--it presents better opportunities compared to most other cities.  It would cost hundreds of millions and take at least a decade to plan and build.

Climate change effects on park visitors

Hubert H. Humphrey Memorial Park, Pacoima, California. Thermal radar shows the differences in heat on a basketball court after reflective paint coatings were applied. 

Sun and heat.  Parks need to acknowledge heat and climate as issues that can suppress park use.  For example, brutal heat in July and August means kids probably stay inside. 

We have an open basketball court at Sugar House Park, and last summer I went up to some teens and asked them questions about what they thought about the amenities.

They mentioned shade was an issue commenting how they liked the trees that were there.  I came back with suggestions like an additional (perhaps temporary) small shade structure, misters, and adding more trees as shade devices--we can take out a bit of asphalt and add trees.  They also mentioned their desire for a water bottle filler at the nearby restrooms. 

-- "Warming Temperatures Likely to Alter Visitation across the National Park System," NPS

Reflective paint to reduce thermal effects.  Special reflective paints are a way to reduce the effect of heat on roads--the park loop road includes separated walking and biking lanes, concrete pads, courts and other facilities ("As heat waves increase, Los Angeles is coating some streets with ‘cool pavement’," Los Angeles Times, "This L.A. neighborhood's 'cool pavements' help it beat the intense heat," NBC).

Shade screens and misters. A park in South Salt Lake, Fitts Park, has a shade screen over their playground, and it makes a significant different in heat between shade and sun.  Surprisingly, shade screens are few and far between.  

Phoenix and some other cities have developed community shade plans with parks and open spaces being key to responding to the challenges presented.

-- Tree and Shade master plan, Phoenix

Playground equipment gets super hot in the sun.  The Washington Post had a great article, "Kids getting burned on swings and slides? Here’s how to fix it," about research on heat and playgrounds.

-- Guide to Climate Friendly Playgrounds, Western Sydney University
-- "Outdoor playgrounds and climate change: Importance of surface materials and shade to extend play time and prevent burn injuries," Building and Environment (2022)

Shade screens can make a 20° or more difference between shade and direct sunlight.

Hydration. An issue.  Should we have more water stations?  It turns out over 80% of the park's budget is spent on utilities including "culinary water."

Kurt Amuedo, a third grader at University Park Elementary in Denver, Colorado, displays poster protesting air pollution for Earth Day. Denver Post.

Climate change as an opportunity for civic engagement within parks and parks systems

Sustainability education.  Dealing with climate change as it effects a local park is the opportunity for teaching and learning about the environment.  

Repositioning environmental issues around sustainability leads to renewed interest and innovative approaches to issues.

 When I worked in Baltimore County in 2009/2010, I was struck by the rise in interest and involvement in sustainability.  At the time many communities were creating sustainability plans, colleges and universities and other institutions renewed their environmental initiatives around sustainability, communities like Baltimore created sustainability commissions.  There was definitely a participation boost.

We can categorize participation as external or internal:

• External: "ambassador" programs that engage with patrons, treating the park campus as an outdoor classroom and holding workshops for students, events like Montgomery County's GreenFest 
• Internal: planting trees, doing park clean ups, conducting citizen science projects like measuring water quality in Parley's Creek

Sugar House Park has a "Garden Center," that has been under-active.  We can reposition it around Gardening and the Environment, add a slew of activities and programs, making it a leading node within a network of top notch outdoor education centers in the Salt Lake Valley. 

Article on climate change and playgrounds

Fitts Park.

A Washington Post article, "Kids getting burned on swings and slides? Here’s how to fix it," cites the work of researchers at Western Australia University, published in the paper "Outdoor playgrounds and climate change."  

They've also produced what looks to be a very good Guide to Climate-Friendly Playgrounds.

They find that shade has a tremendous effect on reducing temperatures at playgrounds.  

Main playground at Sugar House Park.  (A second playground needs much more serious refurbishment, which is a project for down the road.)

Interestingly, this is an issue that I want Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City to deal with.  Adding a shade screen and misters to some of our facilities is on the agenda for the next capital planning cycle.

There is at least one park in Salt Lake County that has a shade screen for its playground, Fitts Park in the City of South Salt Lake. So far that's the only one I can find.

Sadly, I went through Las Vegas a couple times in May but didn't think to check out their parks, as many have shade screens and other devices at addressing the effect of heat.

I also want to add misters, to a set of basketball courts too.  Long term, we need to think more carefully about "growing" trees as shade devices in focused ways.

Canyon Rim Park, Salt Lake County Parks.

There is a playground at Canyon Rim Park in Millcreek, Utah that is well nestled in trees so that a shade screen isn't required.

Note this is also an issue with transit.  Las Vegas has misters on sidewalks, as does Palm Springs, California.  Phoenix has deployed misters in bus shelters.  

And I've seen a couple examples of fans being included in bus shelters also ("Metro testing solar powered fans in future bus shelters," Houston Chronicle).

Also see "Park system ratings for 2023 | Trust for Public Land ParkScore® rating system."